Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A3

The big beautiful California palm tree dead center in the July 4th photo should make anyone stop and wonder.

Stanley Kubrick is is one of the most renowned perfectionists in the history of cinema and he had Jack Nicholson's face airbrushed onto someone else's body at a party that is not in The Overlook. Jack was never at The Overlook in 1921 as the ballroom depicted in the final picture is not The Overlook’s. It may say “Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball 1921” but the party in the picture is obviously somewhere else and this cannot be ignored. It isn’t in any room inside The Overlook. We see all the big rooms in the hotel and there's absolutely no indication of another one either in the movie or the novel. There should be no confusion about this fact as even Stanley Kubrick states that it’s not The Overlook in his interview with Michel Ciment. “… they were in a photograph taken in 1921 which we found in a picture library. I originally planned to use extras, but it proved impossible to make them look as good as the people in the photograph.” Anyone who really believes this statement, that it was “impossible” and Stanley Kubrick couldn’t get extras to look right in a black and white still photo should take a look at “Barry Lyndon”. He's not telling any secrets to Michel Ciment. What’s important about the photo is that he went out of his way to find an authentic photo from the year 1921. In the photo Stanley Kubrick obviously has Jack standing somewhere else, other than The Overlook and this fact can't be changed.